"SCREWED"
(2000) (Norm Macdonald, David Chappelle) (PG-13)

Alcohol/ Drugs	Blood/Gore	Disrespectful/ Bad Attitude	Frightening/ Tense Scenes	Guns/ Weapons
Moderate	Heavy	Heavy	None	Heavy
Imitative Behavior	Jump Scenes	Music (Scary/Tense)	Music (Inappropriate)	Profanity
Moderate	None	None	None	Heavy
Sex/ Nudity	Smoking	Tense Family Scenes	Topics To Talk About	Violence
Moderate	Minor	None	Mild	Heavy

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QUICK TAKE:

Comedy: Things progressively go wrong for an abused and lowly chauffeur and his pal when they decide to get revenge on his demeaning rich boss by kidnapping her dog and asking for a million dollar ransom.

PLOT:

Willard Fillmore (NORM MACDONALD) has spent the past decade or so of his life serving as the unappreciated chauffeur and generally overall abused slave of Miss Crock (ELIANE STRITCH), the owner of a successful pastry corporation. While the wealthy businesswoman has no problem giving her assistant, Chip Oswald (SHERMAN HEMSLEY), fifty-thousand dollars for Christmas, she can't manage to bring herself to replace Willard's worn out jacket that belonged to his father who held the same position before him for thirty some years.

As such, Willard hates his job, but remembers the advice his father gave him about sticking with Miss Crock -- you'll get ahead" - and thus continues in his unrewarding, thankless position. His best friend, Rusty Hayes (DAVE CHAPPELLE), however, thinks he should do something about his situation. When the two happen across a kidnapping plot on an old movie playing on TV, they hatch a plan to kidnap Crock's feisty little pooch, Muffin, and ask for a million dollar ransom.

The two manage to nab the dog, but not before it bites Willard's hand and leaves his blood, along with signs of a struggle and a nebulous ransom note for Miss Crock to find. As the pooch manages to escape from his kidnappers, Crock is led to believe that someone has kidnapped Willard. Although she's initially reluctant to pay the ransom for a man she despises, public sentiment grows and Crock finds herself forced to deal with the kidnapper.

Of course, that turns out to be Willard himself as he and Rusty scramble to cover their bases when they discover they no longer have the dog and learn that Willard's so-called disappearance had made the news. With Pittsburgh detective Tom Dewey (DANIEL BENZALI) hot on the case, and asking for help from Willard's friend, Hillary (SARAH SILVERMAN), and a less than sanitary and somewhat demented mortician, Grover Cleaver (DANNY DEVITO), Willard and Rusty continually modify their plan as ever more complications foul up their plans to make Crock pay for her callous ways.

WILL KIDS WANT TO SEE IT?

If they're fans of someone in the cast they might, but this barely-publicized film seems likely to make a quick trip to the video stores before most kids will even be aware it was in the theaters.

WHY THE MPAA RATED IT: PG-13

For crude and sex-related humor, nudity, language, some violence and brief drug content.

CAST AS ROLE MODELS:

NORM MACDONALD plays an abused and unappreciated chauffeur who decides to get revenge on his employer by kidnapping her dog and asking for a ransom. As such, he lies and tries to squirm his way out of trouble, uses some profanity and supposedly has sex with a female friend of his.

DAVE CHAPPELLE plays his short order cook buddy who agrees to help him with his kidnapping scheme. He also lies, cusses and briefly smokes a joint.

ELAINE STRITCH plays a crass older woman who's mean and disrespectful to Willard. She also uses some profanity.

SHERMAN HEMSLEY plays her assistant who double-crosses her and may turn out to be gay.

DANIEL BANZALI plays a determined and stern detective trying to crack the kidnapping case. He briefly uses profanity.

CAST, CREW, & TECHNICAL INFO

HOW OTHERS RATED THIS MOVIE

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Curious if this title is entertaining, any good, and/or has any artistic merit?
Then read OUR TAKE of this film.

(Note: The "Our Take" review of this title examines the film's artistic merits and does not take into account any of the possibly objectionable material listed below).

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OUR WORD TO PARENTS:

Here's a quick look at the content found in this comedy that's been rated PG-13. A man's bare butt is twice seen and a few people are seen in skimpy attire, while a quick sexual encounter is implied and some sexually related comments are made. Profanity consists of a possible "f" word, while plenty of other profanities and colorful phrases are also used throughout the film.

The main plot deals with successful and failed kidnapping attempts, and the perpetrators, as well as others, have associated bad attitudes. Violence consists of various people being hit (including some slapstick-style material), others shooting at and/or otherwise threatening people with a variety of weapons, and some kids who beat and rob an adult in a park at night.

Another scene features a dog biting a man's hand that results in lots of blood (along with the dog being smashed into some furniture along the lines of "There's Something About Mary" - meaning in an intended comical sense). Other "gross out" humor involves dead bodies in a morgue, talk of what's been pulled from various parts of their bodies, and someone acting like someone else is urinating on them.

Finally, one character briefly smokes a joint, while others also drink various alcoholic beverages. Should you still be concerned about the film's appropriateness for yourself or anyone else in your home, you may wish to take a closer look at our more detailed content listings.

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ALCOHOL OR DRUG USE

Some people drink beer in a bar.

As Rusty warns Willard about some punch being strong (apparently from the liquor in it), Willard takes out a flask and pours even more liquor into his cup.

Crock and Chip have wine with dinner.

Rusty briefly smokes a joint and has a bottle of liquor in front of him.

Willard and Rusty talk about what they'll be doing on their tropical beach and that includes "smoking a fatty" (joint).

Chip's friend (and possible male lover) has a drink.

Chip and some foreign executives have drinks in a hot tub.

Grover and Miss Crock have drinks.

BLOOD/GORE

Willard's hand is a little bloody after Crock's dog bites him there. We then see more blood run/gush out (with the dog still holding on) and then see blood spray across a wall. Later, Willard's hand (sans the dog) is rather bloody and there's some blood on a box in which the dog was briefly held.

We see some dog excrement in a box.

While faking a ransom videotape, we see a liquid hitting Willard and he exaggeratedly states that it's human urine (although we assume it's not).

We see some dead bodies in a morgue, including one that Grover is using a suction tube on (in the midsection). When Grover stops, we see a small bloody hole in the cadaver's side, as well as plenty of blood on his hands and lab coat. When he then rubs his chin and mouth, he smears blood there as well. He then goes on about pulling all sorts of items from bodies during autopsies (including some from their rectums - a brush, a remote control, etc.).

Grover checks out several bodies in the morgue, including one that's apparently dissolved into a meaty and bloody stew in the sliding drawer.

Chip has a little bit of blood on his head after being struck there with a lamp. The same holds true for detective Dewey later in the film.

DISRESPECTFUL/BAD ATTITUDE

Miss Crock uses Willard like slave labor, is never nice to him, and plans to fire him before the whole kidnapping plot begins.

Willard and Rusty also have both for plotting to kidnap Crock's dog and ask for a ransom, altering their plan to make it look like Willard was kidnapped, and then lying about their activities to everyone, including the police.

About Miss Crock, Rusty tells Willard that he should "take a sh*t in her soup."

Some viewers may take offense with a scene played for laughs where Crock's dog bites Willard's hand and won't let go. As a result, he flails his hand around and then repeatedly slams the dog into some furniture trying to get it to let go of his hand.

Some young kids attack and rob Willard in a park at night.

The guys discover that someone switched the ransom money with some trash.

Rusty and Willard are disrespectful to a parking officer at the airport.

Chip double-crosses Crock and tries to sell her company.

FRIGHTENING SCENES

None.

GUNS/WEAPONS

Knife/Stun gun: Used by a young kid to stab and stun Willard.

Shotgun: Used by Grover to shoot Crock's chandelier and then threaten her.

Handguns: Aimed by the police at various suspects and shot by detective Dewey at Rusty and Willard.

Machine gun: Used by Grover to riddle a police car with bullets and aimed by a S.W.A.T. team at the suspects.

Bazooka: Almost used by Grover on the same police car.

IMITATIVE BEHAVIOR

Phrases: "No sh*t Sherlock," "Holy sh*t," "Get head" (oral sex), "Lazy bones," "Old prune," "Ball busters," "Shut up," "Old Bitch," "Bite my weenie" (double entendre for hot dog and genitals), "Turd," "Tight ass," "Slut," "Go to hell," "Old hag," "Nuts" (crazy), "Jeez," "Bitch," "Dumb ass," "We're going to be somebody's bitch" (what the guys say when they think they're going to prison), "Screwy," "I'm screwed," "Lick me, you old hag," "Go park it up your ass," "My ass," "Whore," "Pissed them off," "Zip it," "We just got the big screw" and "Up yours."

Some kids may get the idea to kidnap someone's pet and ask for a ransom.

Two young kids confront Willard in a park at night. One stabs him with a knife, while the other kicks him several times and then gives him a jolt from a stun gun.

Willard and Rusty steal a police car as they try to elude police.

JUMP SCENES

None.

MUSIC (SCARY/TENSE)

None.

MUSIC (INAPPROPRIATE)

None.

PROFANITY

What sounded like 1 "f" word, along with at least 15 "s" words, 2 slang terms using male genitals ("d*ck"), 16 hells, 10 asses, 2 S.O.B.s, 2 damns, 1 crap, 16 uses of "Oh my God," 4 of "Jesus," 3 of "God," 2 each of "Jesus Christ" and "Oh my Lord," and 1 use each of "G-damn," "Oh God," "Sweet Jesus," "Good God," "Swear to God" and "Oh Jesus, Mary and Joseph" as exclamations.

Some bleeped out profanity also occurs in one scene.

SEX/NUDITY

We see Miss Crock in what looks like a camisole.

After Chip kisses up to Miss Crock telling her how beautiful and sexy she is, she tells him that she previously told him "not in the office" (meaning this sort of behavior between the two of them).

Willard goes to see Hillary and after leaving her place, he tells Rusty that he told her the truth, "we had a little sex" and she told him the name they were looking for. Rusty then states, "Damn, you did all of that in ten minutes?" Later, Willard apologizes for leaving so soon after sex and Hillary then replies, "No problem, Speedy."

We twice see Willard's bare butt as he stands nude in a hospital room.

Hoping to leave town, Rusty states that he's going to get some "Bali booty."

After Willard says he's done everything for Miss Crock that his father did, she replies, "Not everything." She then goes on to say that he "provided extra services" and was "very gifted" and they then realize that when Willard's father said that Willard would get ahead with her, he really meant he would "get head" (oral sex) with her.

We see Chip and some foreign executives in small, Speedo type bathing suits.

Some classic statues of nude men show full frontal nudity.

We see several women in various bikini tops (some that show cleavage).

SMOKING

A miscellaneous character appears to smoke in one scene.

TENSE FAMILY SCENES

None.

TOPICS TO TALK ABOUT

Trying to make money via kidnapping and other criminal behavior.

VIOLENCE

Slapstick style material includes Willard falling from a ladder and having it then land on him; Crock's dog biting Willard on the hand and not letting go (resulting in blood running and then spraying across the room as well as Willard flailing his hand -- and thus the dog -- around the room and repeatedly slamming the pooch against some furniture trying to get it off him while causing some other property damage); Grover accidentally allows a dead body on a gurney to fall down some steps (we only see the beginning of the fall); and Grover pulls Crock down some other stairs with her head bouncing on each step.

Wanting to make it look like Willard escaped by fighting his way out, Rusty punches him in the face and gut.

Although it obviously looks faked, we see the point of view of a camera videotaping Crock that she then hits (and we see the fake-looking crack marks in the glass lens).

Rusty sees Hillary slap Willard.

Two young kids confront Willard in a park at night. One stabs him with a knife, while the other kicks him several times and then gives him a jolt from a stun gun.

Rusty pushes Willard backwards several times and then slaps him on the head.

A hospitalized woman hits Rusty on the head with a bedpan and then throws it at him as he leaves.

Grover blasts Crocks' chandelier with a shotgun blast and then threatens her with the gun.

Panicking, Rusty strikes Chip over the head with a lamp. He later does the same to detective Dewey.

Crock kicks Grover in the face/head several times.

Detective Dewey shoots at Rusty and Willard, blowing out the back window of the stolen police car they're driving.

Several police cars crash into each other (with one landing on top of another car).

Grover opens fire on a police car with a machine gun, ridding the car with bullets. He then prepares to shoot a bazooka at it, but doesn't.

Rusty throws a lava lamp that strikes Chip in the head and knocks him out.

Reviewed May 12, 2000 / Posted May 13, 2000

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